


Hunger

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: The Accidental Vampire [7]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Arendelle (Kingdom Hearts), Biting, Blood, Blood Drinking, Boys Kissing, Darkness, Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Established Relationship, Flirting, Game: Kingdom Hearts III, Gummiphones (Kingdom Hearts), Human/Vampire Relationship, Kingdom of Corona (Disney), Kissing, M/M, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III, Nudity, POV Sora (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, Vampires, Violence, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26229763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: After leaving Arendelle, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy get a message to go to the Kingdom of Corona instead of back to the Mysterious Tower.Sora, who has not yet told the other three about his vampirism, is worried that he'll get too hungry, as he hadn't had a lot of Riku's blood before leaving since he'd anticipated a shorter trip...Can Sora stave off his hunger, or will the others end up learning about his vampirism in the worst possible way?
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: The Accidental Vampire [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777057
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure it's descriptively violent enough for the "graphic depiction of violence" content warning, but I put the warning just in case.
> 
> This happens mostly in Corona, with a brief stop in Arendelle first because I wanted to have Sora react to snow as a vampire but I didn't feel like it warranted a separate fic.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Sora curled into his boyfriend and gently trailed his hand over the bite marks decorating the silverette, proud of his work. Then he noticed something as he reached the spot on Riku’s side where the boy had intercepted the deadly strike meant for Sora in the battle against Xemnas. “I think your scar is fading,” Sora commented lazily, still reveling in his post-orgasm bliss.

Riku sat up slightly to get a good look, and Sora made a small sound of complaint at the loss of the skin-on-skin contact. Riku frowned slightly. “Huh, that’s weird…” 

“Maybe it has something to do with that ambrosia stuff that gave you immortality,” Sora hypothesized. They hadn’t researched that very well before Riku decided to drink it upon discovering Sora’s partial vampirism included immortality (said affliction caused by a miscast world-order spell, of all things… well, at least he didn’t spell any negative traits of such onto himself, aside from the obvious need to drink blood with all other food making him sick). They probably should have, considering Hades gave it to them (but then again, Hades was oddly excited about Sora being a vampire, so perhaps he truly did mean no ill will, as Zeus also had assured them; being King of the Gods and Hades's brother, he should know). All they knew so far was that Riku healed four times as fast now and wouldn’t die of natural causes—apparently that also meant scars healed more than they usually would, too (Sora wasn’t sure what he felt about that, to his slight embarrassment and guilt. Obviously a scar healing was good, but Sora had grown accustomed to the visual reminder that Riku loved him so much he’d taken the attack meant for him).

“Makes sense,” Riku agreed. His eyes fell onto Sora’s leg. “Although it’s not just mine, it looks like.”

Sora sat up and observed the large scar that’d been left on his leg after a shark attacked him in Atlantica. It was definitely much lighter than it had been initially—even though it had been healed as much as possible via magic, it had still been bad enough to leave a scar that supposedly would last for life. “Huh. Weird… maybe it’s not the ambrosia then.”

Riku looked contemplative for a moment. “Or, maybe it transferred,” he suggested.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you drink my blood, which was changed after I drank the stuff—there’s gold flecks in it. So maybe when you drink my blood, you’re getting the effects from it, too.”

“Oh! That’s really cool!” Sora declared. “So, I might start healing faster, too?” He already was immortal, but fast healing was one of the vampire traits he had not acquired. He should test it. “Let’s find out.” Sora brought his hand to his mouth and scraped his teeth across the back.

“Sora! What the hell!” Riku said, grabbing Sora’s hand and readying a cure spell.

“Riku, stop!” Sora said, pulling his hand away. “I just said I’m testing it! I didn’t even break skin, see? You said small scratches like this heal within minutes, so it’s perfect. If it doesn’t heal, then you can cure it, okay?”

Riku took a deep breath and laid back onto the bed, slinging an arm over his face. “Okay, right, sorry. Overreacted.”

Sora flopped on top of Riku, straddling him with their chests flush together, and pulled Riku's arm away to look into his beautiful teal eyes. “You okay?” Sora asked. Riku seemed a bit more high-strung and tenser than usual.

Riku sighed and closed his eyes. “Yeah. Just, anxious, you know. Not really looking forward to heading back to the Realm of Darkness.”

Sora frowned. “Ugh, I forgot about that.” Riku was going to go with Mickey to see if they could find any traces of Aqua there while Sora went with Donald and Goofy to… he already forgot where. Kairi and Lea had left the previous day for somewhere unspecified (well, not exactly unspecified, but unknown to Sora as Kairi hadn’t been talking to him for the past few days—she was still mad at him for hiding the vampirism from her until she found out on her own. Kairi hadn’t stayed angry at Sora for this long since he broke her scooter in fifth grade...).

"Well, it's only for a couple days, right?" Sora clarified, comforting both himself and Riku. "We should get back from our missions simultaneously."

Riku laughed a little. "Big word coming from you," he teased.

"Hey! I know words."

Riku raised his hand up to ruffle Sora’s hair slightly and then left it there as he sighed again. “I really don’t want to go…” Riku lamented.

“Then don’t,” Sora said simply. "Come with me instead."

“Sora, as much as I'd love to go with you, I have to do this. I have a responsibility as a Master.”

“Yeah, but you have a responsibility to me, too. As both my dream-eater and ‘personal blood bank’.” Sora grinned playfully.

Riku groaned. “Please stop quoting Hades on that, especially in bed!” Sora giggled in response, and Riku continued in a more serious tone, “Joking aside, I’m one of the few who can actually safely go there for extended durations, so I don’t have much of a choice. Not if we want to save Aqua.”

Sora sighed. “I hate it when you’re right,” he mumbled, slightly distracted by Riku sliding his hands gently down Sora’s back. He melted at the touch. “Riku... you’re going to make me hard again,” he muttered, meeting Riku’s eyes. The look in them showed that Riku knew exactly what he was doing. 

“Am I?” Riku said in a velvet voice. 

Sora tried to stay focused. “I thought we have to leave soon.” Neither of them wanted to, but...

“True... Sure you’ve had enough blood?”

“Yeah, I should be fine,” Sora promised, though he was awfully tempted at the thought of having more. “It’s only a few days, after all.”

“Yeah? Maybe you should drink some more blood, just in case?” Riku pressed their foreheads together as he met Sora’s eyes.

Sora laughed. “Riku! Come on, we really do need to go…”

“Since when are you the responsible one?” Riku said playfully before capturing Sora’s lips in a deep kiss. He tasted a little salty, a reminder of what they’d done earlier that only served to arouse Sora further.

“I’m not,” Sora said when the kiss broke, “but if we don’t get up soon, then—”

“SORA!” came a squawk as the door burst open.

“...That will happen,” Sora finished under his breath.

Donald ignored the unclothed state of the boys and their intimate position. “You’re late, as usual! Get up and—”

“Okay, I get it!” Sora yelled. “I’ll get up as soon as you leave!”

Donald crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “Every time you say that you just go back to sleep again!”

“Well this time I wasn’t actually sleeping, and I’m not wearing anything, so unless you’re looking for a show, I’d suggest leaving!”

Donald looked puzzled for a moment, then realized the exact nature of the position the boys were in. He abruptly turned around and said “You have five minutes,” before stomping out the door; as he exited he yelled back, “and lock the door next time!”

Sora flopped his head onto Riku’s chest. “This is your fault,” he accused the silverette, playfully thumping him on the chest a couple times in a show of mock anger. Twofold: Riku had been the last in the room, so the door was his fault, and Sora not being ready was his fault too as Riku's mere presence had encouraged Sora to delay getting out of bed.

Riku ignored the accusation; instead he grabbed Sora’s hand. “Huh. Looks like it actually did work.”

Sora lifted his head to look. Sure enough, the hand Sora had scratched was already entirely mark-free. “Nice. Now I’m even more of a vampire!”

Riku chuckled. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“Wait a second!” Sora said, realizing something. He shifted so he was leaning on his elbows on Riku’s chest while still straddling him. “I can go to the Realm of Darkness with you!”

Riku sighed. “Sora, you know you can’t. You don’t have—”

“Immunity to darkness?” Sora finished, then grinned. “That’s where you’re wrong!” When Riku just looked plain confused, Sora explained further, “I’m a vampire. Vampires are dark creatures! So, I’ll be fine.”

Riku frowned slightly as he pondered that, then shook his head. “We don’t know that for certain.”

“Yeah but—”

“Sora. We have to go on our assigned missions right now. But, we can go there on our own and test that theory later, okay?”

Sora pondered that for a brief moment. “So… as a date?”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “A date... in the Realm of Darkness?” He sounded amused.

Sora shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Banging sounded from the door again, followed by a loud “SORA!”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you!” Sora called.

“You have two minutes,” Donald warned, “and then I’m dragging you out regardless of your state of dress!” He then loudly stomped off.

“Is he serious?” Riku asked, sounding unsure.

“Yes,” Sora replied without pause as he immediately jumped off of Riku to find his clothes.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora plopped down in the pilot seat of the GummiShip with a groan, not looking forward to the mission. It wasn’t that he didn’t like working with Donald and Goofy—they’d been his travel companions for years—but he wanted to go somewhere with Riku again! Why did the ban on them travelling together have to last a whole month? They’d only run away without telling people… well, okay, maybe three times in a row was a lot, especially after being warned each time. Still. 

“Come on, Sora! Remember, the ship runs on Happy Faces!” Goofy said.

Sora rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he swiveled the seat around, not feeling like dealing with that bullshit again. “Okay, is that seriously true, or is that just some roundabout way of trying to cheer people up?”

“Of course it’s true!” Goofy said cheerfully, while Donald just made an awkward noise and gave a sheepish expression.

Sora looked at Goofy deadpan. “I read the manual. It’s powered by light. Whether that light is happy or not makes no difference.”

Goofy looked plain confused. “Wait, it doesn’t?”

“YOU read the manual?!” Donald proclaimed in disbelief, then turned to Goofy. “And YOU didn’t?!”

“Gawrsh, why would I need to read it when you tell me everything I need to know?” Goofy asked, and Sora tried not to laugh. Hopefully the topic wouldn’t come up as to why Sora had read it (spoiler: it had been because Lea teasing him about Riku distracted Sora so much he crashed the ship, back when Sora had been trying to hide his feelings).

Donald grumbled something Sora couldn’t catch before plopping down into his own seat and crossing his arms grumpily.

Sora swiveled his chair back around to face the front and pressed a few buttons. The ship rumbled to life, and Sora carefully guided it out of the hanger and into GummiSpace.

“Sora, you do know where we’re heading, don’t you?” Goofy asked after a few minutes, as Sora had not set a course yet, rather was allowing the ship to drift through space.

Sora took a moment to answer. “...No,” he eventually admitted. He scratched the back of his head as he smiled nervously. “I was hoping I’d remember once we got out here.”

Donald scoffed. “Figures.” Then he grinned slyly. “Let me guess, your thoughts were on Riku?” he teased, and Sora tried to stop his face from flushing. Donald’s snicker revealed that he’d failed in preventing the blush.

“Riku?” Goofy asked.

“They’re still in the honeymoon phase,” Donald explained with a snicker.

“Ooooooh.” Goofy said in realization. He seemed to understand the implication, although Sora didn’t. “Sora, do we need to give yeh the talk?”

“WHAT?” Sora swerved around, eyes wide. He couldn’t tell if Goofy was serious or not.

Donald began cackling. “Pretty sure those two already figured it out, from what I saw this morning!”

“Donald!” Sora exclaimed, scandalized that the duck would so blatantly reference such.

“Gawrsh, Sora, is that true?” Goofy asked, seeming slightly surprised.

Sora didn’t even attempt to hide his vigorous blush as he tried to clarify. “We haven’t gone that far yet! Now can we please not talk about my sex life?! It’s awkward!”

Goofy blinked. “Awkward? Why, it’s just a part of life. No need to be so bashful about it.”

Sora stared at Goofy in shock. “I guess…” This was another of those times Sora was made acutely aware that his two travel companions were from a very different world than the one Sora had grown up on (which was a good thing! If any of the adults on the Islands discovered what Sora and Riku had been doing… well, Sora didn’t want to think about that). “Anyway, let’s just figure out where we’re going, okay?”

“Yen Sid said the place is called Arendelle,” came a tiny voice by Sora’s ear.

Sora jumped and hissed slightly as he turned, then realized who it was. “Oh! I’m sorry, Jiminy,” he apologized. “Er. Weren’t you supposed to be going with Kairi and Lea?”

Jiminy sighed. “They forgot me, can you believe it?” the cricket said, drooping his head in defeat. 

“That is pretty rude,” Sora concurred, although truthfully Sora had completely forgotten Jiminy existed, too. The cricket had been hopping between Kairi and Lea, as he felt they needed the most guidance (supposedly because they were both new keyblade wielders, but Sora suspected that in Lea’s case it was also due to some lingering need to be someone’s conscience. Maybe in Kairi’s case too now, considering recent events). Coincidentally Sora hadn’t been on a mission with him in over a month. Not since turning into a vampire, in fact… oh. Hm. Maybe it was good that Jiminy hadn’t gone on any of Sora’s recent missions, come to think of it.

“Hey, Sora?” Goofy asked. “Speaking of Kairi—”

Sora interrupted Goofy, anticipating the questions. “Yes, she’s mad at me, no, I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped, then immediately cringed; that came out harsher than he’d meant it to.

“Sora!” Jiminy said chidingly, and began to rant about speaking with proper kindness or some other crap like that. Sora ignored him.

“Gawrsh, Sora, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Goofy said sincerely, speaking over the cricket—Sora didn’t think Goofy had even realized Jiminy had started speaking.

“Talking about it could help,” Donald chimed in, trying to be helpful. “When Daisy gets mad at me and I don’t know why, Goofy or Mickey sometimes have insights I didn’t think about, and then help me figure out how it can get fixed.”

Sora tried to respond calmly, though there was still clear tension in his voice. “I know exactly why she’s mad: I fucked up big-time. I apologized. There’s nothing more I can do except wait for her to accept it.” Sora realized his fists were squeezed tightly shut as they hung at his sides. He forced himself to loosen them and took a couple deep breaths. “Though I’d understand if she wants nothing to do with me after all that shit,” Sora muttered darkly under his breath, expecting no one to have heard him at that volume.

“Language!” Jiminy Cricket chided shrilly in Sora's ear, and Sora let out a shout of surprise.

“Stop doing that,” Sora hissed, trying to turn to glare at the cricket, which was made impossible by Jiminy springing onto Sora’s head.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora hopped eagerly out of the GummiShip and onto the expanse of fluffy white snow, bounding across it excitedly. Snow was so awesome! Growing up in a warmer climate, Sora had never seen snow until less than a year ago, when they visited Christmas Town. He spun around and flopped down into it, spread-eagle; this snow must be at least three times as deep as the snow there, and being in the middle of a silent forest unmarred by other footprints it felt magical in a completely different way than Christmas Town had. Sora laughed joyfully, then sobered slightly. Wait. Last time he was in snow, he had been given a thick winter coat and pants. This time, he was in his usual outfit; he could feel the snow on his bare arms and legs, and dampening his hair…

But it didn’t feel cold. Was this Donald’s magic? Did the new magical clothes have some sort of cold protection? Was snow in this world not cold? Was this even snow? Sora grabbed a handful, mushing it between his fingers. It melted; okay, it was definitely frozen water… but then why… 

“Sora! You’re gonna catch a cold doing that!” Donald loudly squawked, and Sora cringed at the raucousness of it. It felt wrong to speak so loudly in such a quiet, still place—and Sora’s enhanced hearing only increased that effect.

“Yeah, Sora, it’s awfully chilly here,” Goofy said, voice seeming to echo in the icy landscape.

Sora sprung up and shook himself off to dislodge the snow stuck to him. “Oh, right, haha. Wasn’t thinking, I guess. Hey, think you could conjure some coats, Donald?” Sora asked.

Donald rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You’ll just take it off once we get fighting, anyway,” he pointed out. Right, they’d come here due to reports of increased heartless activity around there.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sora said, letting it drop. It had just been for show, anyway… like a lot of things he did lately… oh. OH. Duh! That’s why he wasn’t feeling cold! It must be a vampire ability he hadn’t realized he had! Come to think of it, he hadn’t been anywhere particularly cold since turning, had he? Sora pulled out his GummiPhone. He had to tell Riku this!

“Sora!” Donald chided. “We have work to do! Play with your phone later!”

“Yeah, yeah, just give me ten seconds,” Sora said as he pulled up Riku’s number.

“Hey!” Donald moved to whack Sora with his staff; anticipating this, Sora grabbed the staff, possibly a little faster than a human normally would react, but he was really really really getting fed up with Donald hitting him all the time! He had half a mind to rip the staff from Donald’s hold and snap it in two.

Sora bit down that urge and the accompanying flash of anger, freezing as he did so; he had been about to growl and bare his fangs! What was wrong with him? He was reacting like a feral animal! Like some sort of dangerous beast! ...Okay, maybe he technically was a dangerous beast. But still. He could control himself.

“Sora! Let go!” Donald yelled belligerently as he attempted to pull his staff away from Sora’s grip. Sora, gaze fixed firmly on the snow in front of him, opened his hand, and Donald fell on his butt into the snow.

“Sora!” Jiminy chided. “That was incredibly rude!”

Sora actually did growl at that. “And hitting people isn’t?!” he retorted.

“Well, yes, that is rude too, come to think of it.” Jiminy turned to Donald to scold him about that.

Goofy looked at Sora with a concerned expression. “Gawrsh, Sora, are you feeling okay?”

“Of course,” Sora said tersely, still trying to dissuade his sudden tension.

“But your eyes—”

Sora abruptly shifted his gaze to Goofy, looking him in the eye, tension fading into panic. Had his eyes changed again? Didn’t Kairi say something about that? When he felt vampirish, they turned gold...

Goofy’s eyes changed from concern to confusion. “Oh, it musta just been a trick o’ the light,” he decided. Sora knew it wasn’t. If his vampire instincts had flared up, which they had, Sora was well aware that his eyes just may have flashed gold before getting it under control.

“Uh, Sure? Hey, look, there’s a girl over there!” Sora noticed, thankful for the distraction. “She looks so sad…”

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora flopped onto the GummiShip’s soft bench seat, which doubled as a bed, sprawling out. “Ugh, I am so ready to leave this place,” he said. Why did they have to climb up a mountain so many times? And what the heck was the deal with the gigantic wolf heartless thing? This was supposed to be a simple in-and-out mission.

“What? You can’t be tired already! You just spent the night in a castle!” Donald pointed out.

“I know, I know,” Sora said dismissively. Indeed; the Queen had offered them extremely nice sleeping accommodations as well as dinner for helping her. Sora wasn’t sure how he’d managed to avoid anyone noticing he wasn’t eating.

Speaking of eating, Sora was feeling a touch of thirst. It hadn’t been that long since seeing Riku—just a few days, including travel time (which had been a full freaking day!)—but climbing the mountain so many times had been so exhausting! Just as with humans, vampires expended more energy with more activity, which meant getting hungrier faster. But, it was just a very slight hunger; they’d be back well before it became urgent… yes, in just over 24 hours he’d be back in his bedroom, suckling on Riku’s neck...

Sora shouldn’t have been surprised when not even a minute later that plan was shattered.

“Yen Sid just sent us a message,” Donald said, looking at his phone. “He wants us to go right to a world named ‘Corona’. Says someone spotted an Organization member there as well as heartless.”

“What!” Sora exclaimed, abruptly sitting up. “We’re not going back to the Tower first? How far away is Corona?”

“Oh, about the same distance from here and there,” Donald said. “So, a day drive there, look into what’s going on, spend the night, and then a day’s drive back. Just like this one.”

Sora nodded slowly. “Okay…” Okay, he could handle this. It'd cut it tight, especially as he’d only had enough blood to keep him properly satiated for four days—three for the mission plus one just in case—not six, but he should be able to withstand a little hunger. All the books said a week ought to be fine. The only reason it’d been an issue in San Fransokyo had been because… well, Sora didn’t want to think about that. But, he’d be fine this time, he told himself. Yes, no need to be nervous or anxious. Besides, Yen Sid wasn’t concerned—if he didn't feel Sora could handle the hunger, he wouldn’t have sent them on this new mission. So, yeah, Sora would be fine.

Still, Sora worried. He tried to distract himself with sleeping and GummiPhone games, as well as fighting more heartless than usual when he took his turn driving (why did they have ships in GummiSpace, anyway?), but that didn’t help much. He kept having a sneaking suspicion that something was going to go wrong. Unfounded? Certainly. But it was still there. 

Or, maybe the unease had nothing to do with his vampirism potentially running out of control; Sora could just be worried about the Organization’s machinations. Larxene had said something about princesses again. She also claimed they were good with having their thirteen darknesses, although she seemed less confident than she would have been if she were certain. Maybe a normal human couldn’t tell, but Sora could sense her heartbeat, pumping the blood through her veins in a rhythm indicative of nervousness. She wasn’t lying per se, but something else was going on—and Sora had a good idea of what it was. Sora and Kairi had defeated the Riku Replica when they encountered him unexpectedly at an empty wharf; there had been no witnesses and no evidence as the body had been sent to Ienzo to speed along his research into creating more. The Organization was unaware of this as far as the side of Light (well, kinda-light; Sora wasn’t sure if he counted as “light” anymore, being a dark creature) knew, thinking he was merely missing. So, the Organization only had twelve… which, although useful to know, it’d be even more useful to know exactly who those twelve were.

Finally, after an agonizingly long time, they landed in the Kingdom of Corona. Well, a forest on the outskirts, at least. Even though it was night, Sora could tell that it was an absolutely beautiful forest, full of lush vegetation and pretty flowers. Sora wondered how it would look in the sunlight (he was so grateful that he hadn’t acquired skin sensitivity to such, as was common with vampires in most worlds). Not that he needed the sunlight to see them, thanks to his night vision… 

“Careful, Sora!” Donald quacked.

“Careful of what?” Sora wondered, looking around. He didn’t see anything. Sora walked forwards, towards a lighter bit of sky that probably indicated there was a town below it.

“It’s dark, and there’s a lot of roots and things,” Goofy pointed out.

Oh, right. “I’m fine,” Sora told them, remembering that they didn’t know about the night vision. He probably should tell them about the vampirism soon, as most others knew now, but he was nervous about what they’d think. Goofy would be accepting, as he was with everything (how'd someone so lax become captain of the Knights?), but Donald… Donald would either be angry or laugh at the extent of which Sora had messed up the spell. Sora knew it was a silly thing to worry about (was that really the only thing holding him back now? Unlike the humans, they’d have no reason to fear him attacking, so he wasn’t worried about them being afraid of him and not wanting to do missions with him), but still.

“We should set up a tent for tonight,” Donald suggested.

“Huh? But the town’s right over there,” Sora said, pointing. “And I’m not tired.”

“That’s because you slept half the ride here!” Donald quipped with a snicker.

“Gawrsh, Sora, how do you know the town’s there?” Goofy wondered. 

“Um…” Could they not see the light? He looked around, spying a sign nearby. “There’s a sign right there, duh!”

Donald squinted his eyes. “It’s too dark to read.”

“Well, it’s in the shape of an arrow!” Sora stated. “So it must be pointing towards town!”

Donald muttered something under his breath that Sora was not supposed to catch. Sora wished his vampire hearing had not caught it, as it was a very rude thing to say. Is that what Donald privately thought of him? Sora did not entertain that fact for long, shoving it away instead, only vaguely noting that he was supposed to stop doing that.

They set up a tent anyway. Sora woke the next morning feeling unrested, but that was expected as Riku wasn’t there to soothe his dreams. Sora didn’t want him seeing this particular nightmare, anyway; it was based on a memory, fighting heartless in vampire rage form. Riku had been there for that, but he didn’t want Riku reminded of it. Although, Sora wasn’t exactly sure if Riku could see his dreams or not, come to think of it. He hadn’t actually told Sora how he made nightmares go away. Did his dream-eater powers allow Riku to dive into Sora's dreams, actively fighting the nightmares, or did his abilities passively soothe Sora from the outside? Sora briefly entertained the idea of a Riku that ate physical manifestations of nightmares, sucking them out via kisses or bites, then dismissed the idea. It made his stomach flutter slightly, but he knew Riku wouldn’t do anything along those lines without explicit permission. Plus, he’d been upset and apologized for not helping with it the last time Sora had mentioned having a really horrible nightmare even though they’d been on other worlds, saying he should have sensed it, implying that the dream-eater ability worked remotely.

Thinking about Riku possibly biting him moved Sora’s thoughts to him biting Riku. He licked his lips, imagining doing so, and his stomach growled slightly. Huh. He must be hungrier than he’d thought; he really should have drank more blood than he had before leaving.

Donald heard Sora’s stomach growl as he woke up. “Well, that’s a sure sign that it’s breakfast time!” He declared. “Whose turn is it to make it?”

“I think it’s Sora’s,” Goofy said.

“How about we just get food in town?” Sora suggested. He could only say he wasn’t hungry so many times in a row before they started getting worried. Getting food in town, particularly hand-held food that could be eaten while walking outside in a crowded area, would make it much easier to pretend he was eating while actually tossing the food away. “I mean, we have to head there anyway, right?”

“We can’t eat out for every meal!” Donald insisted.

Well, then, time for Plan B.

A short while later found Sora frantically trying to put out a large fire.

“Wak! Sora, what did you do?!” Donald quickly and angrily waddled over. “Watera!” he yelled, drenching the entire thing. “What are you, stupid?” he snapped at Sora.

Sora hardly thought that was a reasonable response. “Accidents happen, okay?” He said, agitated (an act; this had in fact been intentional. Well, maybe the agitation was real after Donald calling him stupid).

“Gawrsh, Sora,” Goofy said once he’d ambled over. “What were you doing that made such a huge fire?”

Sora turned to him, feigning sheepishness. “Um. Trying to make breakfast?” he tried.

“What, with firaga?!” Donald squawked.

Clearly Donald had meant it as a joke, unaware of just how incredibly accurate his statement had been. Sora observed the smoking pile of cooking materials, ingredients, and half-prepared food. Some of the supplies were salvageable, but it’d take some time to replace, so in the meantime they’d have to make do with the food in towns. The plan had been fully successful. Sora did feel a little guilty about destroying their things, but it wasn’t a huge issue (everything was replaceable and they thankfully had plenty of munny from fighting all the heartless and nobodies. Why those creatures all had so much munny and items was a mystery, but it worked in their favor).

“I’m sorry,” Sora apologized.

“Hmph. You better be!”

“Now, Donald,” Goofy said, “It was an honest mistake. Accidents happen.” Great, now Sora felt even more guilty, thanks to Goofy being so kind about it.

“Yeah, I didn’t mean to do it,” Sora lied.

“Well, whatever. Let’s just go,” Donald huffed, packing up any salvageable cooking materials, which was essentially only the cast-iron cookware (again, thank the gods for magical pockets. Carrying those around without such would be… well, it wouldn’t be done). Once finished he stomped off. Goofy and Sora followed.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

“Whoa, this place is really cool!” Sora cheered as they crossed a long stone bridge that extended from the mainland into the quaint little island town—city?—that housed the majority of the Kingdom’s population. It wasn’t an island like the one Sora grew up on, which had a much larger physical land area but with the population spread out, rather one that was tiny yet so fully urbanized to every corner that it probably had more people than Sora’s island despite the land mass difference (not more than the Destiny Islands archipelago itself of course, as one of the bigger islands had a legit city). Yet it was a more rustic urbanization than other cities he’d seen, constructed of stone buildings and pathways rather than steel or brick. It was cute, Sora decided. The cutest little city he’d ever seen.

Something was happening in this stone city, judging by the sheer number of people bustling around the marketplace, which seemed to be decorated in celebration of something. Sora could barely get a look at any of the vendors with so many people crowded around.

“Hey,” Sora asked a random person. “We only just got here. Is there some sort of celebration?”

“You haven’t heard?” the man exclaimed. “Why, the lost princess has returned after eighteen years!”

“Lost princess?”

“Oh, you must be from really far away if you don’t know! Well, long story short, the princess vanished from her crib as an infant. Every year since, on her birthday, everyone would all send out floating lanterns in hopes they might lead her home. And this year, it worked! We’ve been celebrating for two days already, and the festivities are planned to last all week!”

“Oh, wow, that’s really awesome!” Sora declared. “Where was she all that time?”

“Well, as it turned out, a witch captured her,” the man explained. “You see, she had magical hair that the witch was using to extend her life, can you imagine that! But this really cool guy found her hidden in an enchanted tower. He didn’t know she was the princess, but she wanted to see the lanterns, so out of the magnanimous kindness of his heart he agreed to escort her to the city to see them. And as luck would have it, not only was she the princess, but she fell in love with the guy!” 

“Hmm…” Sora put a hand on his chain as he thought. There was something about his expression and the way he said all that… “That guy wouldn’t be you, by any chance, would it?”

The guy looked completely shocked. “What? Me? …Okay, how’d you guess?”

Sora laughed. “Guess I got lucky,” he said. “I’m Sora, by the way.”

“I’m Flynn. Flynn Rider.”

“EUGENE!” A feminine voice called. “EUGENE, WHERE— oh! There you are!” A pretty teenage girl with short auburn hair appeared. She stood with her fists on her hips. “Eugene Fitzherbert. Just where have you been? You promised you’d help!”

“Eugene?” Sora asked, raising an eyebrow. “Thought it was Flynn.”

The main blushed slightly.

“You’re still going by that name?” the girl chided. “I told you not to use it anymore!”

“Aww, come on, it’s so much cooler—”

“And on all the wanted posters! You can’t be my prince if you’re in prison!”

“...I suppose you have a point... Wait a second. Your parents pardoned me!”

“So? Not everyone knows that. What if there are bounty hunters?”

Flynn—Eugene—laughed. “Pretty sure that kind of thing is only in those books you’re obsessed with.”

“Oh, actually, bounty hunters do exist,” Sora corrected. “I’ve met some.” Not in this world, but still.

“Oh, damn. Eugene it is, then!” Eugene declared. “Happy, princess?” He winked at the girl, who giggled.

“You’re the princess?” Sora asked, amazed.

“Yes, it seems I am,” the girl replied, voice delicate and joyful. “Although, I had no idea until very recently. My name is Rapunzel,” she said.

“I’m Sora!” Sora declared, holding out his hand to shake. She pulled him into a hug instead. Sora wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that… he caught a whiff of her scent. Sweet, very sweet, like Kairi, Elsa, and Anna all had been… oh, wait. Princess? 

As she released him, Sora concentrated, trying to sense the scent of her darkness, but there was none. Yup, Princess of Light. Riku had taught Sora how to sense darkness; Sora had been able to sense it strongly when in his vampiric rage form (as it ate darkness to extend itself), and with Riku's encouragement he discovered that he could do so outside the form with concentration. It was an extremely useful ability.

“Oh, sorry, do you not like hugs?” Rapunzel asked, noticing he had been frowning.

Sora snapped out of his thoughts. “Huh? Oh, no, I love hugs! Sorry, just got lost in thought for a moment. You kinda remind me of someone else I know. She’s also a princess.”

Rapunzel clapped her hands together. “Oh, that’s so exciting! I haven’t met another princess before. Actually, I hadn’t met anyone other than Mother—er, I mean, the witch who kidnapped me—until a few days ago! Well, I guess I must have when I was an infant, but of course I don’t remember that. It’s all so exciting! I love people!”

Sora was a little overwhelmed, not quite sure how to respond to the excited tirade. He wondered if this was how people felt when he went on similar rants.

“Now now, dear, I think you’re overwhelming him,” Eugene told her.

Rapunzel blushed. “Oops, sorry. I guess I tend to get overexcited.”

Sora laughed. “Hey, it’s all good. I totally understand.”

“SORA!” came a warble, and Sora cringed.

“Sorry, those would be my companions…” he explained. “I guess I ran off without telling them…”

Donald and Goofy came into view, and Donald looked angry, as usual. “You gotta stop running off!” he squawked.

“Now, now, don’t get angry,” Eugene chided. “He was just asking me for information. Then the princess here got involved, and, well, here you are.”

“Princess?” Goofy noted. “Gawrsh. It’s nice to meet you, your highness. My name is Goofy.” He offered his hand, and she hugged him.

“I’m Donald,” Donald said, and Rapunzel hugged him too.

“I’m Rapunzel, and this is Eugene,” she said, gesturing to the man.

“Oh!” Goofy said suddenly. “If you’re the princess, you must know the King and Queen, right?”

“Yes, of course; they’re my parents. Oh! I can’t believe I have parents now! Sometimes it’s hard to believe I’m not dreaming…”

“Uh. Okay?” Donald said, unaware of Rapunzel’s situation. “Well, we’ve been sent to talk to them. There have been reports of bad characters around here, as well as monsters. The king here contacted our King about it, and he sent us to help.”

“Yup! We’re moster exterminators!” Goofy said. Sora scrunched his eyebrows in slight confusion. He… supposed that was true. Okay, exterminators it was.

“Oh! Yes, they caused us quite a bit of trouble when Eugene here was bringing me to the city,” Rapunzel explained. “I’ll bring you to them right away. And Eugene, you’re coming too! You promised to help me finish sorting all the gifts and letters people sent!”

Eugene sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” he said, though he was smiling and his voice seemed more entertained than actually reluctant.

As the group walked towards the castle, Sora whispered to Donald, “I thought people weren’t supposed to know about other worlds?”

“They’re not,” Donald answered.

“Then why do the King and Queen here know?”

Goofy answered. “Oh. Well, about a decade ago, when the worlds started to fall, Mickey went to warn the leaders of various worlds about it, leaving contact information in case of emergency.”

“He didn’t give much information,” Donald clarified. “Just the danger part.”

Goofy explained further, “Most worlds didn’ bother to contact us when they saw signs, either because they got new leaders that weren’ told, thought it wasn’t as serious as it was, or their world fell before they noticed the signs.”

“Yeah,” Donald corroborated. “In short, they were idiots.”

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

“We weren’t sure whether to contact you at first,” the Queen reluctantly admitted. “Initially we thought people were mistaking thugs and ruffians for monsters, which is particularly common if they encounter such in the evening or night, and then we thought that someone might be illegally breeding hybrid animals again. However, when Rapunzel described the ones she’d seen upon returning, we knew they were the danger your king had informed us about.”

“Tell us, is our city in danger of falling?” The King asked. “If so, we must immediately evacuate the citizens, correct?”

“No need to worry about that!” Donald assured. “We were able to stop what had been causing places to fall.” At those words, the King and Queen visibly relaxed slightly.

“But the heartless—those are the shadow creatures—are still problematic,” Goofy explained. “They don’ appear on their own anymore, which means someone bad is controlling them.”

“Someone bad?” The Queen asked.

Sora nodded. “Yeah. There’s a group out there who’s up to no good. They found ways to control the heartless, so when they’re around that means people from the group are too. We’ve been fighting them. Have you seen anyone with black cloaks around?”

“Black cloaks? Hmmm…”

“Oh!” Rapunzel exclaimed. “Yes! Mother—I mean, the witch Gothel—was talking to someone in a black cloak recently! He first showed up about a couple weeks before I escaped.”

“That would be when they started to appear,” the King mused. “Well, then!” He exclaimed. “You plan to investigate and eliminate them, correct? We’ll offer you any resources you require!”

“Food, lodging, even weapons,” the Queen promised.

Sora smiled. “We have weapons,” he said, summoning his keyblade. “This is actually one of the only things that can permanently defeat the heartless; otherwise, they’ll return,” he explained.

“Food would be good though,” Donald exclaimed. “We haven’t eaten yet, because SOMEONE turned breakfast into a pyre.” He shot Sora a glare.

“Hey, it was an accident!” Sora defended.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

A couple hours later, Sora found himself in the bathroom of a tavern practically puking his guts out, shortly after he, Donald, and Goody had split up to search the town and ask people questions about the heartless and Organization member who had been seen around. Donald had noticed Sora wasn’t eating any of the lavish brunch the King and Queen had their chef prepare, and practically forced him to eat way too much. Obviously, this had not been good for him, being a vampire. He really should tell Donald and Goofy about that soon…

Thankfully, the tavern was crowded enough that Sora could slip in and over to the bathroom unnoticed; the people seemed friendly enough here, but they had encountered places in some worlds that required purchasing something if you wanted to use the bathroom, and Sora didn’t fancy drinking alcohol so early in the morning. He vaguely wondered why hard alcohol was okay for his stomach (he’d discovered that at the nightclub in San Fransokyo) but food wasn’t. Come to think of it, he could drink water, coffee, and tea, as well. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the body didn’t absorb it the same way as heavier food? Sora wondered if drinks with more substance like beer, soda, and lemonade would bother him. He was reluctant to experiment though. 

As soon as he’d gotten in the single-occupancy bathroom it had started. Honestly Sora was surprised he’d been able to hold it in that long to begin with… once he was sure everything was out, he made sure to clean up thoroughly (after all, there was quite a bit of blood in it, too), and exited to see someone waiting. The woman looked concerned, so Sora just gave her a casual smile before heading out…

Sora felt a small wave of hunger, and his eyes widened. Fuck. Already? He had been quite sick, but still… they needed to take out the heartless and Organization guy ASAP so he could get home to Riku. Was there a way to assuage the hunger until then? He suddenly realized how close he was to everyone, smelling the blood…

The bartender swore as he dropped a glass, slightly cutting his finger. Sora automatically moved to the counter before he realized it. Well, fuck.

“Sorry,” the bartender said. “I have to go take care of this; be back in a moment.” He rushed to the back and Sora let out a sigh.

Sora sat on a stool and put his head in his hands, trying to calm down. Were his eyes gold again? Hopefully no one noticed the change from that to blue once he calmed… well, not that they’d know what it meant, but still. Although it was fairly dim lighting in here, so maybe the change in eye color would be harder for the humans to see. Sora kept forgetting that humans couldn’t see as well as he could in poor lighting. Unfortunately that was the only vision improvement he’d gotten… long-distance vision would have been cool. Well, at least he got the hearing… not that it was helping much now, as it was very loud in the tavern and his vampire instincts, hungry, had attuned him to the sound of all their pulses… he had to get out of here.

“Sorry about that,” said the bartender, whom Sora hadn't noticed returned. Sora gave a start and removed his hands from his face, looking at the guy wide-eyed. “Oh, didn’t mean to startle you,” the man said. The quite attractive man… Sora mentally shook himself. What was he thinking? He had Riku. “You look like you’re having a rough time,” the bartender said, sliding a drink over to him. “It’s on the house,” he explained.

Sora blinked, looking at the drink. There must not be a drinking age in this city; sometimes they encountered such, especially in more rustic places like this. It was clear like water, but Sora could smell the strength. Strong enough to block out the tantalizing scent of the man’s blood; he had a bandaid on, but Sora could still smell it. For some reason it smelled more enticing than other people’s blood—well, other than Riku’s, of course. 

Sora downed the shot of whatever-it-was in one gulp. “Thanks,” he said.

The bartender whistled slightly. “Whew, you must really have needed that.”

Sora nodded. “Yeah. Can I have another? Er. What is it, by the way? I come from a different land,” he explained, in case it was a common thing.

“It’s called whiskey,” the bartender said, pouring Sora some more, over the ball of ice in his glass. It was pretty cool; Sora wondered if large ice balls were common here or if that was a quirk of this particular tavern. “They sell bottles at a store down the street, if you want to take some back to wherever you’re from,” he said with a wink. 

Sora nodded. “Thanks, maybe I will.” He was being truthful, too; Kairi would be interested, if not Riku. Then Sora remembered she was mad at him… well, all the more reason to get one—he could use it as an apology gift.

“So, what’s up with you?” the bartender asked suavely, watching Sora sip his drink. He leaned on the counter, slightly to the side of where Sora was sitting to be at a comfortable distance. His head rested in one hand. Sora’s heart did a small flip… wait, what the fuck. Sora was with Riku. Maybe he should drop his name just in case the bartender was trying to flirt. Sora wasn’t quite sure if he was or not. Bartenders tended to act friendly with guests, from what little he knew of them (mostly from movies).

Sora sighed. “I guess… I’m a little homesick,” he lied. Or was it a lie? He did want to be with Riku right now, and not just for his blood. “I’m here with two companions, but…”

“But there’s people there that you miss more,” the bartender said perceptively.

“Yeah,” Sora admitted. “Two of them,” he realized. “I miss my boyfriend—I mean, I always do when we’re apart, but for some reason it’s stronger than usual today. And the other, my best friend, I got in a fight with, and she was still mad about it when I left. She was really mad at me…”

“Ouch. Yeah, fighting before leaving is never fun. What’d you fight about?” the bartender asked, as he gestured to Sora’s empty glass. Sora nodded, then bit his lip and put two fingers up. The bartender gave him a double shot.

“Well…” Sora said, wondering how much to say. It was pretty nice talking to someone neutral about it. “Basically, I kept something from her. Something really big—I don’t want to get into what—that I should have told her a long time ago. She then found out on her own, which she wasn’t happy about, especially since it’s the second time I did that within a month.”

The bartender winced; he’d grabbed a glass and a cloth to clean while they talked. “Ooooh, that’s never a good thing. You have to talk to your friends!”

Sora laughed ruefully. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out. Hopefully she’ll forgive me.”

“Well, she forgave you for this first thing, right?”

Sora nodded. “Yeah. But that was different—it was that I had started dating our other best friend, which she apparently had known would happen since before we knew we liked each other. This other thing was a bit more shocking.”

“Shocking, huh?”

Sora nodded. “I… did something that wasn’t so good. I tried keeping it a secret from everyone, but others found out. I guess she’s more angry about that than the thing itself. She’s my best friend since we were really little, so I really should have told her first, but so many others ended up knowing before she did.”

“Hmm. Well, if that’s what it’s about, rather than what you did itself, then I’m sure she’ll forgive you. Just make sure you tell her things first next time, and I’m sure your relationship will recover fine.”

Sora nodded, and smiled slightly. Yeah, it’d be fine. Sora felt like a small weight had lifted; huh, guess talking about stuff really did work. He also felt less hungry; had alcohol really been the solution to staving off his growing hunger, even in spite of the bartender’s extra-delicious smell—whoa, no, Sora could NOT think about that. He didn’t need the hunger rearing its head again! Also, alcohol as a means to stave off hunger for blood was probably not a healthy thing. Maybe he’d see if safer drinks worked too. Sora then noticed the clock nearly.

“Oh, man!” Sora said. “Is that clock really accurate? Donald and Goofy are gonna be wondering where I am! How much do I owe you?”

Sora took care of the bill, throwing in a generous tip as well (for the mini therapy session! Definitely not because the bartender looked so hot!) and then hurried out of the tavern.

Sora ran smack into Donald.

“Sora!” Donald squawked. “Where have you—why were you in a tavern?!”

“I really had to use the bathroom!” Sora explained truthfully, annoyed that Donald had instantly jumped to him drinking. Which, to be fair, he had been, but still.

Sora and Donald headed to the town square, where Goofy was waiting for them with Jiminy. They conferenced about the information they had gathered; from what they could surmise from such, it seemed that a pink-haired Organization member had greatly tried to interfere with Eugene’s rescue attempt, further confirming the hypothesis that he had been working with the witch who had kidnapped Rapunzel. Why, though, was a mystery; they would have to find and ask the man himself. Sora strongly suspected it had to do with their obsession with princesses, but it was always good to be sure. Plus, they had to get him to leave, or at least convince him to stop summoning heartless and nobodies to attack innocent townspeople.

The trio then left the city to investigate, as rumor had it the cloaked man had been staying in a formerly-abandoned house deep in the woods, close to the Tower.

As the trio walked, Sora’s stomach grumbled a little; guess the alcohol hadn’t actually held him over much after all. His mind felt a little fuzzy, too… well, he did have what, 4? 5? Shots within an hour. Maybe that had been a bit much. Oh, well. He could still fight fine, evidenced from the battles so far against heartless and nobodies, the last three having been in quick succession. That increase must mean they were getting close.

Soon the trio came across a small dilapidated-looking cabin. It had some clearly-new boards on one window, as well as a couple stray ones on various parts of the walls, indicating someone had only recently started patching things up. A light could be seen between the boards, but the other windows were dark, although it was daytime so maybe the sunlight was enough for the windowed rooms. As they approached, Sora wondered what they should do. Knocking would be polite, in case it wasn’t him, but the warning could alert him and allow him to escape if it was. With that considered, should they burst in and then apologize if it wasn’t him? Oh, maybe they could peek in the windows to confirm first.

Luckily none of that was necessary, as the door opened. Sure enough, there was a tall guy in a black cloak and long spiky pink hair. Next to him was a scantily-clad woman whom he was handing money to… oh. Sora blushed slightly upon realizing what had most likely occurred. Well, then. As she walked past them, the woman smiled, swayed her hips, and winked at Sora, misinterpreting the blush as being related to her looks. Which was reinforced by Sora watching her momentary, although in actuality Sora had caught a whiff of her delicious blood… no, wait! What was Sora thinking?!

The Organization member strolled up to them. “Ah, nice to make your acquaintance, finally. Or ought I say, again, although you may not recall such.” At those words, Sora frowned. Not remember? Larxene said similar… oh, wait. Weren’t there Organization people at that Castle Oblivion place? Sora would ask Riku if he remembered them. The man continued, “Truthfully you were expected days ago, but it seems you did things out of order. I suppose you'll be pleased to know that your help wasn’t required to thwart our plans in this circumstance, as it often tends to be. It is unfortunate that the princess is no longer in the tower, but I suppose she'll be safe at the castle, too.”

“Safe from what?” Sora asked, confused at the guy’s nonchalance. “You?”

The guy laughed. “No, not I. Simply in general. She is one of the new princesses, you see. Call it a back-up plan, if you will, in case you cannot find all your guardians.”

Sora tilted his head in thought. “So, you’re here protecting her?” If that was the case, maybe they could convince him to cooperate.

“Well, not exactly. I was here to determine if she was the princess or not, and then to ensure that she is properly protected. She is, so my mission is complete.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“That is a very good question. I assure you it had nothing to do with procuring the services of the woman earlier. Anyway, seeing as my mission is now complete, I shall take my leave.” The man summoned a dark portal, then paused. “Oh, before we part ways, you haven’t happened to have come across someone that resembles a younger version of your boyfriend, have you?”

Sora shook his head and lied, “No. There’s someone that looks like Riku around?”

The man sighed. “That is too bad. Well, Sora, I suppose we shall meet again, during the final confrontation between Dark and Light. Farewell, now.” The man stepped through the portal and vanished, the portal closing immediately after. The few lingering heartless and nobodies Sora could see around the cottage vanished with his departure.

“...Is it just me, or was that a bit too easy?” Sora asked after a pause.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Donald chided.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sora wondered, as they began walking back to the ship.

Goofy clarified, “It means sayin’ that might jinx it.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you just say that, then, Donald?”

Donald scoffed. “You’re the only one who doesn’t get that.”

Sora bit back a retort. It was probably a reference to something he should have learned in school, which he dropped out of (or, more technically, had been skipping for two years; he never did legally drop out). 

Suddenly, the breeze shifted, and Sora caught a whiff of something… with a start he realized it was the scent of the blood of the woman who had left the Organization member’s cottage; she was sitting against a tree a short distance away eating a sandwich. The scent was seductive, almost. Oh. Sora recalled that pheromones and emotions and stuff could affect how tempting blood was to a vampire, according to the books they’d read (which explained how he could smell arousal, which was disturbing in most cases yet awesome when around Riku. It also explained why drinking Riku’s blood was more enjoyable when they’d been fooling around). If the bartender had indeed been flirting, that could be why he smelled so sweet. And if that woman had just had sex… well, the vampire instincts would definitely find things more tempting, the lingering endorphins adding an extra layer of taste. Wait. Why was he even thinking about all this? It was super creepy. And he didn’t want to drink anyone’s blood but Riku’s, anyway. Especially not the woman’s, even if his stomach was growling like a raging lion and his mouth salivating. Even if she smelled absolutely delectable…

“Sora?” Donald said, snapping Sora out of his reverie.

“Huh?” Sora asked, turning away from the woman and toward Donald, who squawked. “What?”

“Gawrsh, Sora, there’s a touch of gold in your eyes,” Goofy commented.

Sora blinked. “There is?” He tried to come up with an explanation… well, maybe he’d just have to tell them outright. But how to phrase it…

Jiminy jumped from Sora’s hood to Donald’s hat to talk to him. “Now, Sora…”

Sora didn’t pay attention to the cricket, as usual; it’d probably be a lecture on gawking or something. Sora’s eyes wandered back over to the woman. As though she could sense his predatory gaze, she looked up, meeting his eyes… Sora vaguely heard Goofy mention something about his eyes getting darker, but he was too focused on the woman; he could smell the slight sense of fear, hear her pulse quicken… did she know what was about to happen? Sora licked his lips as he grinned, revealing fangs, eyes still locked with hers.

The woman’s eyes widened as she scrambled to stand up to run, dropping her sandwich, but Sora was too fast. Just as she reached her feet he slammed her against the tree and drove his fangs into her neck, eagerly tasting the sweet blood. The woman’s scream quickly faded as the aphrodisiacal vampiric venom spread through her, calming her fear as Sora drank deeply. He was being messy, spilling precious blood; he quickly unlatched his fangs and lapped it up before driving his fangs into the soft flesh of the neck a second time to ingest even more of the woman's delectable blood. The woman's body became limp, and her eyes were half-closed with their light fading. Sora continued to drink despite this, barely aware, revelling in the delicious taste of the woman’s warm blood, wanting to drain her of every last drop… 

“SORA!” came a yell from behind him, from two creatures fast approaching. They continued yelling over each other, things about stopping… 

Sora gasped as he unlatched his fangs, suddenly realizing what he had been doing. No, no, no, no no no no no! Sora stumbled back, falling onto his butt. What had he done?

Donald ran right to the woman, who had slumped to the ground, while Goofy stood a safe distance from Sora, monitoring the situation; he seemed unsure how to approach this. As expected; what did one say and do when they just witnessed the kid they thought of as a son violently murder someone via draining their blood?

Sora’s heart raced; he had to get out of there. He scrambled up and dashed off in a panic, ignoring the voices behind him calling his name. He used some air magic to increase his speed; why couldn’t he have the superspeed now?! Was it only when he was hungry or something? Well, he certainly wasn’t hungry now. He had gorged himself on blood, drank more than he ever had in one sitting—at least that he remembered (last time it had been the Riku Replica, which was kinda okay because they had to defeat him anyway. Also his replica blood/darkness combo had tasted like shit; this, on the other hand… no! Don’t think about that!). Sora hated how good that had felt. How good he felt right now, physically, despite the anxiety and panic. Adrenaline, probably. And the vampire instincts being overly satisfied.

Sora found a small knoll in between some rocks and bushes and curled up. It was a good hiding spot. Sora wiped a few drops of blood off his mouth with his sleeve, thankful the fairies liked black clothing now; as he did, the full reality of his situation hit him. Any pleasure from the blood drinking abruptly faded away as his eyes widened in horror. Sora had KILLED that woman. Killed her! Drained her blood to the point of death. There was no excuse for that. He didn’t need that much blood. He should have stopped, should have been able to stop. But he’d just kept going! Sora was a horrible, dreadful, ghastly, terrible monster. That woman had been completely innocent. There was nothing Sora could do to justify her death. Nothing. 

The way Sora saw it, he had a few options. 

First option was that he could simply give up and run away, give into the vampire instincts until some brave hero appeared and took him out. 

Second option was that he could wait until Donald and Goofy found him, or go to them, and let them mete justice on him, whatever they decided he deserved. Maybe they’d kill him immediately. Sora wouldn’t fight back if that’s what they wanted to do. He was a deadly dark creature. He was a killer. Or maybe they’d turn Sora over to the Corona authorities, let this world’s own laws decide his fate. Probably death in that case too, as he was a murderer now. Arguably he had been before, but that was to save the worlds, which was different. This time there had been no reason for Sora to kill other than to sate his lust for blood, a hunger he shouldn’t have. Argh! If he hadn’t been so stupid and messed up that spell… leave it to him to mess up a supposedly-simple world-order spell so badly that he permanent became a dark creature that lived on blood. 

Third option was that he could save them the trouble and destroy himself. Maybe just not drink blood again and starve. He didn’t want to die, but if the only other options were to either have his friends kill him, which would cause them pain, or live forever as a dark creature, constantly murdering people…

Wait, no. There was another option: Riku. Duh. Sora could run away with Riku, if Riku agreed of course. Which Riku most likely would, if he followed his pattern of doing everything he could for Sora. But… could Riku truly forgive him for murdering someone innocent?

Sora sat there for an unspecified amount of time lost in his thoughts before he was interrupted by a loud ringing—his GummiPhone. Sora hastened to fish it out of his pocket and held it in front of him, looking at the number. Riku. Of course it would be Riku. Sora let it go to voicemail, then it immediately began ringing again. Sora again ignored it. Riku called again. Well, might as well answer, Sora decided; he didn’t want to worry Riku too much… he wasn’t sure what Riku knew, but why not rip the bandaid off.

Sora pressed the answer button, revealing Riku’s face, looking worried and anxious. Sora closed his eyes and didn’t say anything in greeting.

“Sora,” Riku said, his voice gentle despite the anxiety. “Hey, how are you doing?”

Sora opened his mouth, then bit his lip, ignoring the pain caused by the fangs. He opened his eyes, hoping his facial expression said enough.

Riku’s breath hitched. “Your eyes…” he whispered.

“Let me guess, they’re gold?” Sora surmised dejectedly.

“Yeah,” Riku said.

“Well, I did just murder someone,” Sora said flatly.

“Sora, you didn’t murder someone,” Riku replied firmly.

Sora’s eyes began to water. “Yes, I did! I was hungry and attacked someone! Pinned them to a tree and drained their blood until they were beyond unconscious!” He was sobbing now. “I killed her! I killed her, Riku! She was innocent! I’m a murderer!”

“Sora, hey, listen to me,” Riku said firmly. “You didn’t murder anyone. Donald called me. She’s alive.”

Sora didn’t comprehend at first, but the sobbing stopped. “What…? But I felt her…”

“Donald saved her,” Riku explained. “She’s alive. Donald and Goofy are taking her to the city for further treatment, and will tell them that an animal attacked her. Can you head to the city too?”

Sora was quiet for a moment. “She’s really alive?” Sora asked in a whisper.

“Yes,” Riku said.

Sora felt slightly better with that news, but… “But I still attacked her. I would have killed her if they hadn’t stopped me,” he admitted.

“True,” Riku acknowledged. “But, Sora, you were hungry, right? You can’t be blamed for doing what you had to to stay alive.”

“What?” Sora exclaimed, highly confused now, his body calming in reaction to the unexpected words. “But, I could have waited to get back to you, probably,” he admitted. “And I didn’t need to take nearly that amount, even if I couldn’t.” He had to make Riku understand how dire the situation was. 

“Sora, if you came across a starving child, and gave him a loaf of bread, would you be mad if he ate it all immediately, even if logically he could survive with only a little until you could get him to a soup kitchen?”

Sora scrunched his brow. “Of course not.”

“So… isn’t this situation the same? You were starving, there was food, so you ate all you could.”

Sora blinked. “What? It’s not at all the same! No one died in that scenario.”

“No one died here either,” Riku reminded him.

“Yeah but they almost did!” Sora argued. “And besides, she’s a human, not bread.”

Riku sighed. “Sora. You need to consume blood to live. It’s food. You can’t deny that.”

Sora bit his lip, ignoring the drips of blood it caused. “Okay, that’s true,” he said at length. “But—”

“No buts. That’s life. I hate to be so blunt, but you’re a vampire, meaning you need to drink blood to live. I won’t always be there if you need it; you may on occasion have to drink from unwilling people. You need to accept that.”

“What! Riku, I can’t just accept killing people!” Was Sora hearing him right? 

“I’m not saying that,” Riku quickly amended. “I’m saying that next time, drink when you first get hungry. Don’t force it and wait for something like this to happen.”

“You’re telling me to just assault people?! Riku!” Sora was appalled. Seriously?

“Yes, I am,” Riku said calmly. “You need to do what you can to stay healthy. It doesn't even need to be violent. You can do it stealthily: a sleep spell, a quick drink, then a small cure spell. Simple.”

Sora narrowed his eyes. “It sounds like you’ve been thinking about this. Are you planning to leave for a long time again?”

Riku paused. “Not necessarily. But longer missions do sometimes happen, Sora. I talked to Kairi and Lea about it yesterday, and they said if they’re on a mission with you and you need it they’d be willing to let you have some of theirs.”

“Kairi?” Sora asked. “So, she’s okay with me being like this?”

Riku nodded. “Of course. She was just mad that you kept it from her; you didn’t realize that?”

“No, I did, but it’s nice hearing confirmation…” Sora looked away. “She won’t be okay with it when she finds out I nearly killed that woman though.”

Riku sighed. “Sora, she’s not going to be mad. Disturbed a little, maybe. But you know she’ll support you no matter what—hell, she forgave ME after I destroyed the Islands and basically kidnapped her!”

Sora laughed a little. “Yeah, that is true...” He sighed. “But you didn’t nearly murder anyone innocent,” he clarified. “And especially didn’t drain the life out of them with your bare hands—or teeth.”

Riku sighed too. “Sora. Do you want me to go find her and ask? She’s back at the Tower right now, too.”

“What? No! Don’t tell her!” Sora said in slight panic.

“And risk hurting her again by not telling her right away?” Riku pointed out. “Yeah, I’m getting her right now. Do you want me to tell her, or do you want to?”

Sora thought about that for a moment. Was he strong enough to tell her without breaking down? Sora was honestly surprised he wasn’t going into rage form. Maybe he was more in shock, and shock didn’t trigger it? Well, he wasn’t going to ponder that now. What had been the phrase Donald had used? Don’t look a mule in the mouth? Sora made a decision. “Can you tell her?” he asked tepidly. “Please?”

Riku nodded, and smiled at Sora gently. “Wait there; I’ll call you back in a little bit, okay?”

Sora nodded. “Okay.”

The phone went dark, and Sora sat there, pondering the events in question. He had calmed a bit, surprisingly, despite the panic not having been fully assuaged. He shook slightly, trying not to think too hard about what he had done. Knowing that he hadn’t killed the woman was relieving, but still… 

Suddenly, Sora recognized one of the emotions swirling within him for what it actually was: Fear. Not fear for anyone, or that someone would get upset, or of some sort of outside physical danger—fear of himself. He was afraid, deathly afraid, of himself. Of what he was, the vampiric instincts inside him. Ienzo had claimed his heart had accepted his vampire status for some reason, but why would it, if he was so afraid of it? Drinking Riku’s blood was different: Riku was willing, so the vampire instincts didn’t come out the same way. But when he was hungry, they did. Sora became a predator, a creature designed to kill, something humans feared (Well, most humans. Riku was just weird about that, some sort of fetish thing. Meg and Hercules had been like that too. Sora vaguely wondered if those three would willingly go up to other dangerous creatures, ones that didn’t care about their lives, because of that… ugh, no, Sora did not want to imagine that!). He became a deadly hunter, with only one intent: catch the prey and drain them of blood. And it was so extremely difficult to control! Once he’d become locked onto the target, as his vampiric instincts took over, his morality had gone down the drain… that there was what Sora had been most terrified of, he realized. That was what he was most ashamed of, felt guiltiest over: the fact that, at that moment, he enjoyed it. He revelled in it. It wasn’t the blood being necessary that was the issue, rather the fact that he’d liked not just the blood but the hunt. From the instant he caught her scent, the vampire parts of him had perked up, become excited at the prospect of killing. He wanted to drain the woman of blood, to feel her life force fade. That terrified him more than anything else. Sora had been telling himself that he wasn’t as dark a creature as legends said, but he was. The vampire’s innate darkness had taken control. His eyes turned gold, for the gods’ sake! The color of darkness. 

Sora shivered slightly as he was reminded of all the villains they’d fought, how consumed with darkness those with golden eyes were. Was he one of them now? One of the Darknesses, rather than one of the Lights? 

Sora then paused in realization of something else. If he was indeed Dark instead of Light… that actually gave them an advantage! When going to fight, Xehanort would assume they had seven lights. He wouldn’t know that one of them, one of the least expected ones, was actually a dark creature. So aside from revelling in murder, maybe the vampire thing wasn’t quite as bad as he thought… wait wait wait. What the hell was he thinking? Of course dark murderous instinct was bad, whether it gave them an advantage or not!

Unless… Riku was experienced with Darkness. He had overcome it before, despite being consumed. Maybe he could help Sora control it, too? It was a bit different, but similar enough, right? And… Riku didn’t mention it earlier, but Sora recalled that he understood what it was like to nearly murder someone, too. He’d tried to kill Sora while possessed. And isn’t that what was happening to Sora? He was being possessed by the vampiric darkness. It wasn’t exactly a person, but Sora imagined that it was a similar feeling of loss of control, if not quite the same.

The GummiPhone rang again, and Sora picked it up from where it was lying next to him on the ground, nearly fumbling it as he quickly answered the call. “Riku!” he said, upon seeing the silverette, who tilted the phone to show the other caller. “And… Kairi,” Sora acknowledged nervously.

“Hello, Sora,” Kairi said gently, eyes kind to match. “Riku told me what happened.”

Sora looked away. “Do you hate me for it?”

Kairi actually laughed at that. “Sora, I could never hate you, you know that! You could destroy the Destiny Islands and I couldn’t hate you.”

“Hey!” Riku said, laughing at the reference, and Sora smiled.

“Joking aside,” Kairi continued, “I’m not mad at you for being what you are.”

“But… I’m a dark creature, Kairi. My eyes even turn golden. It’s basically the opposite of what we’ve been fighting for for so long… I nearly killed someone!”

“But that was the vampire,” Kairi pointed out, as Riku had earlier. “When you’re not being all vampiric, you’re still fully Sora, I know it.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t think either of you are understanding,” Sora realized. “I… I didn’t just kill her. I LIKED it. The vampire instincts, the darkness, took control, and revelled in it! I WANTED to kill her. I would have if they hadn’t stopped me. I wasn’t fighting it at that point. I wasn’t trying to stop myself drinking. I ENJOYED it! I went full vampire, and enjoyed it.” Sora began sobbing. “How can you still want to be around me after that? How can anyone? I’m dangerous! What if I attack someone I know? That’d be even worse than this! Why do you still want to associate with me?”

“That doesn’t matter to us,” Riku said adamantly. “I know you won’t kill us. You didn’t kill me,” Riku pointed out.

Sora cringed. “I came close, though,” he admitted, recalling the time he’d come back from his mission absolutely starving. It hadn’t been quite the same, as there were no hunting instincts due to Riku’s somewhat worrying willingness, but still. Kairi looked slightly curious but thankfully didn't ask. 

“I know,” Riku said simply, to Sora’s surprise. He knew it had been that close? “I still love you, though,” Riku said earnestly.

“Me too,” Kairi added. “You’re still my best friend, even in light of what you are.”

Sora chuckled at that. “I’m not exactly light anymore, you know,” he pointed out.

“Eh, details.”

“But… I liked trying to kill the woman,” Sora said quietly. “Even knowing that, you…”

“Well, you don’t like killing people when you’re not overcome by hunger for blood, right?” Riku asked.

“Of course not!” Sora said loudly, eyes wide with horror. 

“Then there you go. You’re still ultimately the same person, vampire or not. As long as you stay fed, there will be no issue.”

“But,” Kairi jumped in, “Even when you do get hungry enough to attack someone, we won’t judge you for it,” Kairi said firmly.

“When?” Sora said, noting the word choice, voice high. They expected this to happen again… and what was worse was that Sora knew. It was inevitable.

Riku shrugged. “Hey, it’s inevitable,” he said, catching the thought. “We’re going to live forever, after all,” he pointed out.

Kairi gasped. “Wait, what?”

Riku turned to her, confused. “I already told you that, remember?”

“I thought you were joking! And you didn’t say SORA was too!”

Riku shrugged. “Thought that was a given; vampires generally are.”

Kairi looked thoughtful then, seeming to mull something over. Sora could guess what it was.

“No, you’re not doing that,” Sora told her resolutely.

Kairi blushed. “How’d you know—”

“I’ve known you since we were kids, Kairi. Besides, it’s not going to be very fun, you know.”

“Well, yeah, but I’d have you two.”

Riku caught on to what she was thinking. “NO, Kairi.”

“Aww, come on…”

Sora then laughed a little at his next argument. “Besides, do you really think Hades would be willing to give a Princess of Light an immortality potion?”

Kairi playfully pouted, silently conceding the point. “Hmph. You two are no fun.”

Somehow, that brief exchange assuaged Sora’s anxiety more than all of his friends’ earlier assurances. Sora thought about that. Perhaps it was because it was so normal; the small banter and typical reactions from the two showed that nothing had changed within their dynamic, even when everything else felt like it had. It was… grounding. Some stability in the midst of all the turmoil.

Of course, despite this brief and pleasant peace caused by Sora’s renewed confidence in his best friend’s and his boyfriend’s trust, it wouldn’t last long: he had other friends to discuss this with, who would no doubt come looking for him if he didn’t return to the city. Anxiety started creeping up again. How would they react? Riku said they’d be telling the authorities it was a feral animal attack… which it kinda was (he certainly had been acting feral and instinct-driven), but they’d assume it was a wolf or bear or something, not a vampire. So they probably didn’t plan on killing him. But then everyone else would need to be told, too; maybe some of them would. Maybe Yen Sid would. Yen Sid seemed like the kind of person who would do that.

“Sora?” Riku prodded. Oh, Sora had forgotten he was still on the phone. “What are you thinking?”

Sora tried to smile reassuringly but it ended up being a weird strained smile-frown mix instead. "Well… I guess I should go find Donald and Goofy before they start looking for me, huh?”

Kairi smiled gently, predicting Sora’s worries. She was good at that. “Don’t worry. They’ll be accepting, I’m sure. Maybe a bit angry you didn’t tell them, but they won’t try to kill or capture you.”

“They were a bit shocked at first, until we explained—they thought you might have been possessed. Now Donald actually seems to be blaming himself a little for this incident,” Riku said, to Sora’s shock.

“What? Why?” Sora demanded.

Riku shrugged. “Something about forcing you to eat too much? I was worried you’d gotten hurt or sick, since you shouldn’t have been so hungry yet. Goofy mentioned you hadn’t been very hungry, thinking that meant you were feeling sick, and I told them it was the opposite—human food makes you sick.”

Sora cringed. “Ah. Yeah, that might have played a part… oh, but in other news, apparently alcohol reduces the hunger a little! ...Although come to think of it, the lowered inhibitions may have made it a bit easier for the vampire instincts to take over...” he realized.

Riku and Kairi looked at Sora in mirrored expressions of baffled surprise. “You were drinking?” the former said. “Why?”

Sora blushed. “Um. Long story short, I used a tavern bathroom to throw up, on the way out the bartender cut his finger, it smelled really good so the vampire reacted, and then I was at the counter with the guy giving me a free drink. Of the alcohol, not the blood!” Sora quickly clarified. “Oh, and he gave me a small therapy session. And no, Donald and Goofy don’t know.”

“How much alcohol?” Kairi asked curiously.

Sora’s embarrassed blush increased in intensity. “Let’s not get into that right now,” he said. “But, uh, I’m serious about it reducing my hunger for a bit… we should experiment with that.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Experiment? Sora, that—”

“Not with alcohol!” Sora quickly clarified. “Maybe water and tea and stuff. I was thinking that maybe it’s because it’s not actually food? Like, maybe the intestines don’t process it the same way? Type of drink might matter… I dunno if soda and beer would work since they have sugar and stuff that does get processed…”

Riku blinked. “Wait, if you weren’t drinking beer, what were you drinking?!”

“That’s not important,” Sora said evasively.

Kairi looked more curious as opposed to Riku’s worry. “How’d you get him to give you it? You do look younger than you are,” she pointed out.

“Oh, rub it in!” Sora complained teasingly, then shrugged. “No drinking age here. I can get you a bottle; the guy said there’s a shop that sells it! It was pretty good.”

“Oooh, would you?” Kairi asked excitedly.

“NO,” Riku said, turning between her and Sora. “No one is buying alcohol, legal or not.”

“Aww, but Riku—”

“Kairi. We live at Yen Sid’s. Remember how he acted last time?”

“Yeah, but we were on a mission!” Kairi protested. “This is different!”

Riku sighed and rolled his eyes. “Somehow, I don’t think that matters to him.”

Sora laughed at the interaction between the two, happy that they were all able to comfortably chat like this, a reminder that they hadn’t abandoned him, that they really were okay with what Sora was, enough to stay friends. Yes, things would be okay, he decided. Even if everyone else abandoned him, Sora would still always have Riku and Kairi. Sora didn’t know what he’d done to deserve such good friends.

“Well, I guess I should get to the city, now,” Sora sighed, reluctant to go.

“Good luck,” Riku said heartfeltly.

“Don’t forget to wipe the blood off your mouth!” Kairi added, oddly cheerful.

“She’s joking,” Riku assured Sora, upon noticing his horrified expression.

Sora made sure to stop by the lake to wash his face completely anyway.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora took a deep breath as he stood at the edge of the bridge leading into the city. He was almost too nervous to move, but he forced himself to press forwards anyway, sluggish step by sluggish step. It felt like he was moving through molasses. He felt every person’s eyes on him as he walked by; the festival was still going strong. Sora knew in actuality that almost no one spared him a glance, but his brain kept screaming to him that everyone knew, that everyone was judging him, even though logically he knew no one he passed knew. He could hear them talking, but it was all about festival stuff, nothing about him or even the injured woman. No reason to think they knew, but he still kept thinking they did. 

Donald and Goofy knew, though. Watched him commit that heinous crime. Because that’s what it was: a crime; he had assaulted someone innocent. There was no denying that. He couldn’t justify it… in his mind, rabid hunger was not an excuse, no matter how much his friends had told him it was. No, it was worse than assault. It was attempted murder. If he hadn’t been stopped… Sora shook his head, not wanting to think about that. His thoughts briefly strayed to how enjoyable it had—NO. Sora bit back that thought immediately. He. Did. Not. Like. It. No, no, no. Stupid vampire instincts. Stupid Darkness. 

Sora passed the tavern he’d been in before, noting the bartender outside of it leaning against the wall, probably taking a break. He was smoking something. It smelled… sweeter than tobacco. Huh. Curiosity got the best of him. Plus, he couldn’t recall if he’d thanked the man for his advice.

Sora casually altered his path so he’d naturally walk past the man. The man smiled and waved at Sora as he approached.

“Oh, hey!” Sora said happily. “Thanks again for earlier; talking about that really helped a lot.” He didn’t mention the phone call further resolving it; they didn’t seem to have such technology here.

“Hey, not a problem,” the man said, waving a hand in dismissal. “Always happy to lend a hand. Hey, want a puff?”

“What is it?” Sora asked. “It smells different than the kind we have where I live,” he clarified (Not that he’d ever tried such. Nope, hadn’t at all. Definitely had not ever been dared to at one of Selphie’s parties).

“Just something to relax,” the man said casually. “Here, try it.”

“I dunno. I do have to meet my friends…” Sora said, even though he did not want to meet them, was extremely curious, and probably could use something to relax.

“You sure? You look super tense,” the man said, who seemed very relaxed himself. “If you want, I have some extra you can take, for a fee of course. To try later. But I really suggest trying it now, too, seeing how stressed you look. Don’t want to get into any more arguments with friends now, hmm?”

Sora thought about that. He was pretty tense, and being tense did result in arguments. “Well, okay,” Sora decided, accepting the rolled up bit of paper that emitted a sweet-smelling smoke. He coughed a little initially, and blushed.

“Happens all the time at first,” the man said. “Try again, but don’t inhale quite so much.” So, Sora tried it again, and true to the man’s word, it was better. 

The two chatted for a bit about random subjects, and Sora realized he actually had started to relax a bit. He truly was less anxious, too.

“You said… you have some to purchase?” Sora asked, wondering if it'd be able to make him relax enough to mitigate rage-form when he felt it developing.

The man smiled playfully. “Already liking it, huh?”

Sora blushed. The man was… cute. Crap, was he getting a crush? As the exchange was made, Sora reminded himself he was with Riku. Besides, he barely knew the man at all—who was definitely well into his twenties whereas Sora was sixteen—and he was clearly buttering up Sora to spend his money. Sora should not be complying.

Regardless, Sora accepted the joint again after pocketing his purchase, and the two chatted and laughed with each other some more as they passed it back and forth.

“Heh-hem!” Came a loud cough, and Sora turned to see a very angry duck, arms crossed and tapping his foot.

“Oh. Hi, Donald,” Sora said, unconcerned. 

“We’ve been waiting for you for hours!” Donald said belligerently.

“Oh, sorry…” Sora apologized, then blushed as he turned to the man, whom he realized he never asked the name of. “I guess I gotta go, haha.”

The man smiled at Sora. “Well, I gotta get back to work anyway, but I’ll see you around, hm?” He gave Sora a wink.

Sora blushed. “Uh, yeah, see you around,” he said shyly as the man went back inside.

“SORA!” Donald said loudly.

“Yeah, I hear you. Back to the inn, right?” Sora began casually walking that way, noting the duck’s confusion at his lax attitude. Sora also realized he was still holding the joint. Huh. Well, might as well. Sora took a drag.

“WAK!” Donald exclaimed, noticing. “What are you doing!?” he slapped the joint out of Sora’s hand.

“Hey,” Sora complained, though he kept walking. He had expected that. “That was rude,” Sora added with a small pout.

Donald grabbed Sora’s wrist and spun him around, peering at Sora with narrowed eyes. “Are you high?!”

“Um… am I?” Sora asked. Oh. Yeah, he was, he realized. Definitely. And it was awesome. He’d never felt this relaxed before (barring post-orgasm ambrosia-blood-highs with Riku), totally empty of anxiety.

Donald quickly stomped off, still holding Sora by the wrist. Sora complained a little, but went along with it until they were in the inn with Goofy and Jiminy.

“Gawrsh, what’s up with Sora?” Goofy wondered, looking worried.

“He’s high again!” Donald asserted, grabbing his GummiPhone and dialing up someone. Sora wondered who and why as Goofy sat him down on the bed.

Sora’s anxiety was returning as he remembered why he had needed to relax in the first place. Well, the conversation would be easier without the possibility of a panic attack and rage form, right?

“How do you make someone not-high?” Donald demanded to whomever had answered the phone.

“What?” Mickey asked, sounding very confused.

“Sora got high again! How do I make him not so!?”

“What?!” Exclaimed someone else. Riku? He was with Mickey? Mickey must be at the Tower, then.

“Oh, hi, Riku!” Sora called loudly and cheerfully. He hopped over to the phone to peer over Donald’s shoulder.

“Sora!” Riku declared. It looked like he’d stolen the phone from Mickey. “What is Donald talking about?” he demanded.

“Oh, well, I was on my way to the inn, when I walked past the tavern and saw the nice bartender outside taking his break, and he offered me this thing to smoke that made me relax a whole lot,” Sora willingly explained. “You should try it! It’s really—”

“Stop that!” Donald quacked. “No one will be trying that again! Especially you!” He glared at Sora, then turned back to the phone. “Put Mickey back on! How do we make him normal?!”

“Gosh,” said Mickey. “I don’t think there is a way, other than time.”

“We don’t have time!” Donald said. “We need to talk about what happened! We can’t do that if he’s high!”

“Why not?” Sora asked. “Isn’t it better if I am? I'm relaxed enough that I won’t go into rage-form, probably,” he pointed out.

“Hmph. Fine, then. You can explain things on the ship; we’re taking you straight back to Yen Sid’s! Maybe you’ll come down by then.”

“It’s a day’s trip, so he definitely will,” Mickey assured him.

“But then won’t he be all hungover?” Goofy wondered.

“If it’s what I think it is, it won’t have a hangover like that other stuff did,” Riku chimed in. “Not that I’ve got experience,” he quickly added, in a way obviously indicating that he did.

Sora narrowed his eyes. Had Riku been holding out on him? Not sharing the wonders of this thing? “Riku…” he began.

“Sorry, gotta go, see you tomorrow, Sora!” Riku said quickly before running off somewhere.

Sora frowned. “Hey!”

Jiminy jumped into view. “Well, now,” he said. “I think we may need to have a formal discussion with all the kids about intoxicating substances.”

“Ya think?!” Donald snapped. “Now, let’s get back to the ship.” He grabbed Sora’s wrist again and dragged him out the door, Goofy in tow with Jiminy on his head.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora immediately headed to his room once they got back to the Tower; Kairi and Riku were thankfully already there, sitting on the couch waiting, as he’d messaged them beforehand (to their surprise). “Quick, where’s a good place to hide something?” Sora asked in an urgent whisper.

“Uh, why?” Riku asked blankly.

“Because I’m pretty sure Jiminy is going to insist they search our stuff,” Sora explained.

“Why?” Kairi asked this time, except she was smiling teasingly, since it was pretty obvious why.

“SORA!” came a loud duckish warble from outside. “We need to report in! NOW!”

“YEAH I KNOW!” Sora yelled, then pulled a small bag of something out of his pocket and tossed it to Riku. “Hide this, now,” he ordered, before quickly darting out of the room. Then he remembered something, and stuck his head back in. “Warn Lea, too—pretty sure he took some stuff from Merlin,” Sora told them, then shut the door and headed to Yen Sid’s study/office.

“Sora,” Yen Sid greeted, donning his usual stoic expression, no hint of how much he knew. He probably knew everything. “I have been informed that you severely injured an innocent woman. Explain.”

Sora explained, doing his best not to get too emotional during it.

♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦•♦

Sora groaned and closed his eyes as he flopped onto the couch between Kairi and Riku, spread out as much as possible; Kairi ducked as he nearly hit her in the face, and Riku just let Sora thunk him in the chest.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Riku asked, grabbing Sora’s hand to hold it.

“Two weeks’ suspension,” Sora said.

“Well, that’s not too bad,” Riku reasoned.

Sora opened one eye and looked at Riku. “Seriously? One week stuck here studying books was torture. Two is going to be utter hell! I tried to convince him to let me train my magic with Merlin instead, but apparently he doesn’t want any of us training with Merlin.” He turned to Kairi. “Which is completely your fault, you know.”

“Hey! Lea took part too!”

Lea, sprawled out on the bed, replied with a laugh, “Oh no, it was totally your idea to use those plants.”

“Well, Merlin didn’t object,” Kairi argued.

“...Which is why Yen Sid doesn’t want us training there.”

Sora sighed. “Man, why do they have to be so anal about this? Oh!” Sora exclaimed. “I have more bad news: Jiminy convinced Yen Sid that our rooms should be searched, and that we should get random drug tests.”

“WHAT!” the three others yelled simultaneously.

Lea jumped up. “I’ll be right back!” He darted out of the room.

Sora chuckled. “You two didn’t tell him?”

“...We didn’t think you were actually serious,” Kairi admitted.

Sora scoffed. “Are you kidding? This is Jiminy we’re talking about. He takes his job as a conscience extremely seriously.”

“That is a fair point,” Kairi acknowledged.

Sora hummed slightly. “Hey, Riku?” he said after a moment.

“What’s up?” Riku replied.

“Can I have a snack?”

“...Didn’t you just have more blood than you’ve ever had barely more than 24 hours ago?”

“Well, yeah, but it wasn’t YOUR blood,” Sora pointed out, going along with the jibe (was it even meant to be one? It was murky) even though he felt like it was a bit too soon to casually joke about. Eventually they would, he knew—that was just what the three of them did with bad experiences—but yeah, the day after was still a bit too soon, even if Sora had somehow managed to distance himself from that mentally. Which meant putting the emotions behind the wall, which he wasn’t supposed to be doing because that triggered rage-form. But, it’d be fine, as long as he didn’t shove too much behind the wall, Sora told himself. He had been good about that lately, after all. Kinda. 

“Okay,” Kairi said somewhat loudly. “I’m right here, you know!”

“What, do you want me to drink yours instead?” Sora quipped.

“What! No!” Kairi squeaked, blushing slightly, then took a breath to recover. “I’m not the one with the biting fetish,” she said teasingly as she glanced at Riku with a sly smile.

Riku flushed scarlet with embarrassment. “Kairi!” he hissed.

“Just saying…”

Sora smiled happily to himself, again realizing just how lucky he was to have such wonderful, accepting friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Sora, you have to learn to tell people things! I think everyone important to the side of light knows now; if I forgot someone let me know.
> 
> Next major entry I have planned involves Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy at Monstropolis, where they run into Vanitas, who incites Sora into rage-form. What'll happen when Sora drinks from a being of pure darkness? POV will switch between Riku, Kairi, and... Vanitas!
> 
> Before that though I'm going to do something short and less angsty with just Riku and Sora, either with them hanging out together at the Tower or visiting the Realm of Darkness (Riku did promise Sora a date there, after all). They need a break!


End file.
